Is this what we can expect when the New York Islanders make a deep run at a Stanley Cup hopefully in the very near future?
Let's open by giving the Devil his proverbial due in Scott Burnside of Espn who once again defines tabloid journalism in 2010 here. Dolan's writer Arthur Staple played this game on the Lou Lamoriello Devils a few times.

I looked back at the April 2002 opening round series vs Toronto to see the ten-fifteen plus New York Islander articles each day in four local papers.

What a difference a decade makes? Even back then the decline in hockey journalism in New York was well underway vs the major sports.

Even Los Angeles has done better than New York with their honest amateur hour mistakes getting the team name wrong/where the Kings play.

It's been far worse here.

Expect it to only get worse in the finals.

It has been a sad show seeing the future of New York playoff coverage after a season of hockey hidden in baseball, NJ football, and basketball's town.

These playoffs have only confirmed what we already knew, there is no dedicated major hockey media in New York any longer. Most of what came out seemed like ad money leftover from the Msg/Knick/Jeremy Lin ad budget that had to be used.

This says nothing about the middling/weak ratings locally/nationally where three fan bases watching could not produce big local numbers between NBC once again cancelling local viewing parties to pad ratings with misleading headlines.

Dolan's media on television/print proved it's entirely about their own team or saving coverage money. In their newspaper, former Ranger full time writer Arthur Staple never worked harder since he was on their beat.

2012 also confirmed again how cheap Dolan could play with teams he pays to hide, not having Devils road post-game coverage in early rounds, then forcing combined coverage of two teams on one channel with long-time salesman, Al Trautwig, controlling all spin.

It was sad seeing a Yankee rumor take the front/back page from a conference finals game, but after six months of no back pages, no journalist, you could practically see the scramble of news editors desperately searching for anyone who ever covered hockey in the past.

Those who surfaced wasted no time insulting us pretending to play instant expert or wave the pom poms for the future resume/employment, the dust rising from outdated hockey cue cards painfully apparent.

Only thing more comical was one headline article giving the Rangers a playoff clinching win against Washington in game six.

Even former Islander writer, Mike Lupica, tried to insult us by playing instant expert a few times before going back to baseball/regular news, you can almost see him telling his bosses, no more hockey.
edit-Ok, he had a few appropriate words for Lamoriello Sunday, in part of one column.

Is there a bigger walking cliche than Filip Bondy?

One writer even claimed the Islanders and Rangers played in the 2004 playoffs.

2012 has confirmed hockey in New York is a niche sport more than ever with a much smaller fan/media bandwagon than ever.

It's been terrible, the future will only be worse. Perhaps those pay walls are a good thing for the fans to keep some of these writers away?

Interesting former Dolan employee, Katie Strang, who covered less than five Islander centric game all season, pretended to insult everyone's intelligence by giving our team grades starting with owner, but passed on giving one to her former boss at Newsday in James Dolan?

At least Mr Dolan got it right about one local team being close to a cup last January.

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